8th graders spent the day engaging in authentic science to determine the health of our local ecosystems. Perfect way to help kids become stewards of our natural spaces. Credit: Kyra Stephenson

NYSDEC, Sea Grant, and NY State Parks Host a Student Summit Event to Announce Success of Two-Year Environmental Education Project in the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Watershed

Contact:

Megan Kocher, NYSG Great Lakes Outreach Coordinator, E: mk2236@cornell.edu, P: (716) 645-3011

Oswego, NY, October 6, 2023 - New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos today announced the successful completion of the ‘Day in the Life’ of the Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River Watershed project, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and undertaken in partnership with New York Sea Grant (NYSG), the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP), Soil and Water Conservation Districts in the Eastern Lake Ontario region, Rice Creek Field Station at State University of New York at Oswego, and the Great Lakes Ecosystem Education Exchange network, in support of engaging middle school students in environmental monitoring during the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 academic years. 

“With our New York State, federal, and local partners and support from U.S. EPA, DEC is delivering the remarkable ‘Day in the Life’ program to students and educators in the Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River watersheds, fostering connections to natural resources through heightened awareness and understanding,” said DEC Commissioner Seggos. “Day in the Life bolsters DEC’s commitment to cultivating the next generation of environmental stewards and inspiring a life-long appreciation of science and environmental conservation.”

More than 600 middle school students in districts from Jefferson, Oswego, Monroe, and Niagara counties participated in both classroom and hands-on educational experiences focused on monitoring water quality and habitats in the Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River watersheds. Participating schools included Wilson Central School, Lewiston-Porter Central School, Anna Murray Douglas Academy, The Harley School, Mexico Middle School, Pulaski Middle School, Belleville Henderson Central School, and South Jefferson Central School.


(At left) In early October, NYDEC, Sea Grant, and NY State Parks held a Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River Watershed event as part of the statwide "A Day in the Life" program. Approximately 75 students from Pulaski Middle School / Pulaski Academy & Central School District attended the event, which was conducted at Rice Creek Field Station in the Town of Oswego: (At right) At the macroinvertebrate (aka macros, animals without a backbone that are visible without a microscope) station, students checked out critters collected from Rice Creek, not far from where it flows into Lake Ontario. In addition to learning about macros and why they are important water quality indicators, students also participated in stations about land assessment, water assessment, and chemical water quality assessment. Credit: Oswego County Soil and Water Conservation District

State Parks Commissioner Erik Kulleseid said, “We are grateful to join the New York Sea Grant, DEC and EPA to share our careers and inspire the next generation of environmental stewards. Classroom learning is important but then putting those lessons to use in the field makes all the difference. This program truly encourages kids to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty.”

Katherine Bunting Howarth, Ph.D., J.D., NYSG Associate Director and Cornell University Cooperative Extension Assistant Director, said, "Providing students with opportunities to actively connect with New York's Great Lakes and rivers is a goal that New York Sea Grant shares with our DEC and EPA partners. Outdoor experiences have been identified as a catalyst inspiring youth to pursue careers in environmental science. The Day in the Life programs provide that type of inspiration."

In advance of student summit events, teachers and partners were trained to conduct the Day in the Life sampling activities with students during workshops at Webster Park and Wescott Beach State Park. 

DEC and NYSG provided teachers with classroom resources and equipment kits and offered assistance with planning for the student summit events. OPRHP provided planning assistance, host sites, and staff to lead the lessons. As a direct result of this project experience, these teachers and partners now possess the resources and information to independently continue the annual field trip events with future classes, and share their environmental monitoring data with DEC. 

Information from the Day in the Life project, including planning resources, curriculum, student activities, and data collected, is available on DEC’s Great Lakes Program website. The data collected by students through ‘Day in the Life’ can be compared with data collected via DEC’s 2020 Lake Ontario Rotating Integrated Basin Studies program, DEC’s primary monitoring program to assess water quality throughout the state on a routine basis, and may be used as screening data to help target future monitoring.  

This project was made possible with support from a $150,000 grant from the EPA Great Lakes National Program Office to support environmental literacy and stewardship in the Great Lakes.


"We had a wonderful time helping out the Day in the Life of Lake Ontario Watershed and Day in the Life of the Niagara River/Lake Erie Watershed organized by New York Sea Grant and Friends of Reinstein Woods respectively," wrote Niagara River Greenway Commission on Facebook. Credit: Niagara River Greenway Commission


Both of these programs [New York Sea Grant and Friends of Reinstein Woods] do an amazing job teaching students how to monitor and record various water quality indicators," wrote Niagara River Greenway Commission on Facebook. Credit: Niagara River Greenway Commission


"We helped students from Lew-Port Middle School and Lancaster High School be citizen scientists for a day," wrote Niagara River Greenway Commission on Facebook. Credit: Niagara River Greenway Commission

More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County on Long Island, Brooklyn College and Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly.